Just imagine all the best of a Reuben Sandwich combined into a soup.

Do you always fix a traditional Irish-American corned beef and cabbage dinner on March 17th? Not always for me, and less often since I’ve been a widow. You can’t buy a small corned beef for 1-2 meals. In this instance, though, I cooked a whole corned beef and used almost all of it to make a double portion of this soup. I was having a group of friends over to play Mexican Train and my co-hostess Holly brought part of the meal (salad and dessert) while I did a nice varied cheese tray and this soup. Oh, and also an Ina Garten Guinness wheat bread I baked (recipe up soon).

The original recipe came from Phillis Carey, although I didn’t attend the cooking class when it was prepared. She sent it out to her email list as a recipe of the week. I did make a few changes from the original: (1) I added some celery; (2) I thickened the soup with cornstarch because I thought it needed to have more heft; (3) I used a quite sour brand of sauerkraut, so I added a tetch of sugar which just took the edge off of that sour flavor, but  you’d never think there was sugar added (and I used monkfruit anyway); and (4) I added a little bit more cream. If you are watching carbs, you don’t have to thicken the soup – although you could take out some of the vegetables (not the corned beef) and whiz that up in the blender to provide a thicker consistency.

And I also changed the way you make and serve the croutons – because I made a double batch of this and was serving a bunch of people, I didn’t want to put 8 bowls of soup in the oven. So, I toasted the croutons in the oven to begin with (drizzled with EVOO), then I kind of mounded them into 8 little crowns and sprinkled the grated Emmental cheese on top and put that into the oven to broil and get golden brown. So, when serving the soup, I scooped the soup into bowls, then used a spatula to take a crouton-cheese crown on top of each bowl of soup. See photo below.

What I did forget to do was sprinkle the top with Italian parsley, but it made no-never-mind to the flavor. I did make the soup the day before serving, and no question, the overnight chill helped meld the flavors. As I write this, I’ve had leftovers twice now, for lunch, and oh-so-good.

What’s GOOD: oh, my, the flavor. Just like a corned beef and cabbage dinner with the Reuben element of sauerkraut and cheese. The croutons and cheese just put this soup over the top. This is a keeper.

What’s NOT: only that you need to prepare a corned beef – or buy thick slices from a deli counter in order to cut cubes. This soup is better made a day ahead.

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Full of flavor soup, for a cold winter’s night. Or day.

Every once in awhile I am able to attend a cooking class that’s not an hour or two away, where my friend Cherrie and I usually drive (to San Diego). Once a month Susan has a class in her home, half an hour away – she used to own a cookware store and still does classes to a small group of fans. This class was all about soup.

This recipe came from Rachel Ray, actually, and although it has a long list of ingredients, this soup is entirely easy to make as long as you have all the ingredients. It’s got lots of veggies in it (cabbage, bean sprouts, scallions – and next time I’m going to add celery) and the flavor comes from peanut butter, soy sauce, red curry paste, some thick tomato paste, chicken broth, and apple juice. You could use leftover chicken, but in this case Susan used a raw chicken breast that she thinly sliced and it cooked in a flash once it hit the hot pan. Literally, the soup comes together in minutes and you’re ready to serve it. You could add different pasta if you don’t have spaghetti. Susan highly recommends Skippy’s super chunky peanut butter (I saw it at Costco the other day, 2 big jars of it, way too much for my minimal cooking needs since I don’t eat peanut butter on much of anything). Susan said that brand got high marks in a peanut butter taste-test somewhere.

What’s GOOD: loved the full-flavored chunky aspect – lots of good things to chew on. Tons of flavor – umami for sure. Easy.

What’s NOT: nothing at all  unless you don’t like Asian-inspired soups.

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Oh, is this stuff the food of the Gods? So flavorful.

Recently I went to a soup cooking class. Susan prepared four soups and a dessert. I liked three of the soups and I liked the dessert (raspberry chocolate brownies) but probably won’t post about it (couldn’t really taste the raspberry jam in the middle . . .). But this soup was the standout to me of the class.

But first I need to talk about annatto (or achiote). This may not be something in your cooking vocabulary. It’s a Latin kind of spice – seed pods, really. The Wikipedia article is very thorough if you’re interested. See them there in the photo at left. They’re a very irregular-shaped seed that come out of a pod of the achiote tree. I see annatto or achiote seeds in the Mexican area of my supermarket, the ones that hang in a cellophane bags. Or you can order them online – Whole Achiote Annato Seeds, 2 Oz. I have some in my pantry and use them so very rarely that I’m certain mine are over the hill. I’m going to be making this soup soon, so I need to buy some new ones. What you need to do is make a flavored oil out of simmering the seeds in a neutral oil (like avocado – definitely not EVOO). The oil will turn a brilliant orange color, which is why the finished soup has that bright hue to it. Annatto doesn’t have a ton of flavor – and yes,  you could leave it out, although your finished soup won’t have that color if you do. Online it says that annatto has a slight peppery taste with a hint of nutmeg. And it used to be used as body paint in tribal life. The tree grows from Mexico to Brazil.

If you make the oil, it will be enough for two batches of this soup. It would be very difficult to simmer 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan with the seeds in it – it would burn, I think. Hence, you simmer the seeds in the oil (to make a larger quantity) over a very low flame. Then you strain out the seeds and toss them. Smelling the seeds they’re similar to a chile pepper (dried), but they have no chile flavor or heat at all. They’re not a chile. They’re just a mildly flavored seed. I remember attending a class decades ago about Puerto Rican cooking where she used annatto oil just like this recipe indicates. If you’re interested here is my PDF recipe from that long-ago cooking class. The one unique thing I remember about that dish was the use of sliced green olives (the ones stuffed with pimento). In any case, annatto is common in Latin cuisine. You can also buy annatto in a paste – but don’t buy that type as it has other things added to it – you want the whole seeds only. And I wouldn’t recommend buying powdered annatto/achiote as it won’t keep long enough.

So back to this soup. If you’re not a shrimp fan, make it with chicken, scallops, or some kind of firm white fish. The shrimp is marinated with some of the garlic, green onions, lime juice and salt – for an hour or up to 3 total. Meanwhile you puree the corn with milk until it’s a smooth puree, then you strain it to remove any of the solids. (No, you wouldn’t have to do that step – you’ll have a bit more texture in the soup if you don’t.) Then you start with a big frying pan or sauté pan, add the annatto oil and cook the rest of the garlic, the onion, bell pepper and cumin. Tomatoes go in, then the corn milk, chicken broth and more seasonings and you bring the mixture to just BELOW a boil (boiling it will curdle the milk), then you add the shrimp. Taste for salt and then serve it with the salsa you’ve made an hour or so ahead (corn, fresh tomatoes, green onions, cilantro and lime juice). That’s it.

What’s GOOD: oh, the flavorful broth for sure. You can use whole shrimp, but I’d suggest (as Susan did) to cut each shrimp in half lengthwise and as long as you didn’t use really large shrimp, the half of one of those is a bite, a mouth full, without cutting. The overall taste is just beyond delicious. I wrote “fab” on the recipe.

What’s NOT: only that you might not have any annatto seeds or achiote paste. Try to find it if you can.
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I know – I can hear you – this isn’t soup weather. Well, sorry about that. I eat soup year ‘round.

You may remember me mentioning a few weeks ago that I was on my 4th batch of a soup – this is the one. This time makes 5 times (over the course of 3 months). I just love-love-love this soup. I wasn’t sure that you, my readers, would be all that interested in this soup because it’s not got any carbs in it and really it’s cauliflower – Italian sausage – kale – and a creamy soup base. I now make a big batch of it whenever I do. I use part pork Italian sausage and part turkey Italian sausage. There’s a lot more flavor in the pork, obviously, but I like to make it a bit more healthy with the turkey type. Making it with all turkey lacks flavor (I tried that also), so do use some of the pork style.

There’s bacon in this which helps with the flavor. I’ve had the original recipe in my arsenal for awhile – it came from Kalyn’s Kitchen. After making it according to her recipe, I adapted it a little bit (a bit more broth, more cauliflower, adding coconut cream or milk to it). The recipe is a riff on Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana, which is a potato based creamy soup with a tiny bit of sausage in it, and the kale. Kalyn did a really super job of adapting the recipe to a low-carb soup – no potatoes, obviously. She added more meat to it. The only other change I made was how I cut the cauliflower. At Olive Garden, the potatoes in their soup are sliced. Small slices, actually. So, I did the same with the cauliflower. You’re not going to be able to avoid some florets out at the tips, but I sliced up the deeper parts, the stems and the main stem too.

Kalyn’s recipe was made in the Instant Pot, and I think the first time I made it that way too. But the next time I forgot and just made it in a regular big, deep pot. It doesn’t take much longer to cook it that way, in any case. I find that this soup tastes better after it’s sat in the frig for a day – as with lots of soups. If you want carbs in this, add some rice, maybe. Or some pasta. But not a whole lot – you might need more broth if you did that. When I made it today I used 2 heads of cauliflower (they were smaller than some) and with the cauliflower and kale in the pot, it was FULL. No room for anything else, unless you added more liquid. In any case, I thank Kalyn for devising the faux style of this soup, cuz it’s really delish.

What’s GOOD: the flavor profile is altogether good. Maybe I’ve gotten used to cauliflower, but I can’t really tell it IS cauliflower when I’m sipping on this soup. Unless you see some of the small florets, you can fool yourself that it’s potatoes in there.

What’s NOT: hmmm. Maybe just all the cutting and chopping of the cauliflower, but I do it so much, I’ve got it down pat.

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Vegetable chowder – with a medium hint of the bacon and tons of cauliflower, but enhanced with cheese and creamy products. Not vegetarian, obviously.

In the last 18 months I’ve consumed more cauliflower, probably, than I’ve eaten in my entire life put together. That’s a lot of cauliflower. It’s a bland vegetable. It’s full of fiber and good things for you, but to make it interesting, I have to add other things to it (in this case bacon) to make it worth eating. I started out with a recipe I’d downloaded from somewhere, but once I got started I began adding other things to make it better. I used Trader Joe’s coconut cream (canned) because it’s a creamy substance that adds no coconut flavor, really. Maybe eating it straight you could tell it’s coconut, but mixed in with all the other flavors, no. You can use coconut milk if preferred. If you use Thai Kitchen coconut milk (the best out there) you’ll definitely have a more coconut flavor profile to the soup. I had some crème fraiche in my refrigerator – it was close to its expiration date, so I added that into the soup too. Don’t use a yellow cheddar or it will change the color of the soup. I  used goat cheddar (from Trader Joe’s) because it’s a cheddar I can have on this Gundry diet and it’s a white color.

The soup is fairly straight forward to make – render the bacon, add in onion and celery – then most of the other ingredients. Add lots of chicken broth, then the cream products at the last. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, add in the cheddar, chop up the chive garnish and you’re done.

I ate this soup for days on end (soup is my regular lunch nearly every day). By day 9 or 10 I was ready to move on to some other soup. I’m amazed that I don’t get tired of eating these soups day after day, but I don’t. I thought about freezing some of this soup, but I was certain the cauliflower wouldn’t come through defrosting without some change in texture since it’s a very water-dense food.

What’s GOOD: for me it was the creamy, bacon-rich taste that I liked the best. The cheddar added a lovely flavor too. I ate it both hot and cold. We had some days that were mid-90s and even with the A/C on, it was warm, so I ate it cold those days. My preference is served hot, however. My serving was 1 1/2 cups and it satisfied my hunger very well. Probably because of all the cream and cheese in it.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Slicing the cauliflower is a bit tedious, but I’ve gotten the technique down pat so it can’t take more than about 5 minutes total. I prefer the cauliflower in tiny slices rather than florets (although you can’t avoid florets totally).

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A very easy soup, tummy-warming, with oodles of mushrooms and good flavor.

Hi all – Carolyn here – after making this soup, I decided you needed to have this one if you’re inclined to make mushroom soup. I got the original recipe included in an email from The Splendid Table, but I amplified it just a bit (adding onion and a bit of cream). The recipe indicated you would puree it (or at least half of it) but I didn’t. I have a big tub of it so I could still do the pureeing part, which might give the soup a bit more texture. As it is, it’s a more brothy soup with lots of mushrooms.

After melting some butter in a big honking pot, I added the shallot, then added onion and celery, pancetta, then the mushrooms, which I sliced up fairly small. They do shrink when you cook them down. Chicken broth is added, salt and pepper, and lastly some brandy and sour cream. After making it and eating it (good) I decided to add in about 1/4 cup of cream just to give the broth part a bit more creaminess. Actually I don’t think I had a cup of sour cream (what was called for) so it kind of balanced out. You could choose. If you’re not into creamy soups, leave out the sour cream altogether. Usually I make soups with coconut milk (which could be used here also) and less cream. I don’t recall ever making a soup that had a cup of sour cream in it – maybe borscht? Just a guess. I do like mushrooms, and the calorie and fat content is quite minimal here – I was surprised once I finished it. I served myself about 1 1/2 cups at a time and it’s what I’ll be eating for my lunch for about 4-5 days. We’re still having very cool weather here in SoCal, so soup still tastes mighty good. If you want variety, add some cooked rice and/or some ground turkey or chicken, or chunks of chicken. All would be good in this.

Last weekend I spent up in the Sacramento area visiting my daughter and family there, where my granddaughter Taylor graduated from Sacramento State (cum laude, no less!). Very proud of her. She still wants to be a nurse, so is planning to go to an accelerated program at a private college in Sacramento within the next 6 months or so. She wasn’t able to get into nursing school 2 years ago (if you didn’t know, it’s very, very competitive and very high GPA’s are required), so is choosing this alternate route, but will require another 12 straight months of concentrated study. She’s taking the next 6 months off, though she’s taking 3 classes this summer through an online college, for classes she wasn’t required to take at Sacramento State, but are required at this private college. Anyway, I had a really lovely time celebrating it all with her, the family and a bunch of their friends. Taylor works at the local hospital ER (as a secretary/admissions clerk) about 20+ hours a week. She loves the job and perhaps after she graduates she’ll be able to get a job there as a Labor/Delivery nurse, which is what she wants to do.

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Since I’m really into soups these days, and since I’ve made this one three times in the last couple of months, I decided I should post it.

When Ree Drummond made a version of this soup, I decided to adapt it to my low carb diet and to a LF (lectin free) diet. You can find her recipe for this online – she adds flour and also prepares some of the mushrooms as a garnish. I merely cut to the chase – removed the flour altogether and partially blended the soup so it still had some chunkiness to it. And didn’t bother with the mushroom garnish. And, as mentioned above, since I’ve made it three times since early January, you should have this recipe.

Probably the Custom Culinary Gold Label Vegan Mushroom Base I use has a lot to do with the flavor. Buy it on amazon (link shown) for $16, I think it is. I use it often and it’s been in my frig for a couple of years without any problem. It pumps up the mushroom flavor. I added heavy cream, but you could use coconut milk if you’d prefer. And note there is 3/4 cup of sherry wine in it. That’s more than most soups would add, but I really like it – whatever it is that does! You do not taste the wine at all, but it must add some depth of character to the soup. The little squirt of balsamic vinegar is unusual, but also adds to the flavor profile.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, the texture, and by far, the low calorie aspect, though you’d not know it. In recent days I’ve had this for my lunch (with nothing else). At 200 calories or less, it’s a winner for me. And yes, I’m still losing weight, albeit slowly. At 77, you don’t lose weight very fast. The soup freezes well.

What’s NOT: really nothing – easy to make.

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EASY to make soup in the Instant Pot. Lots of flavors to savor.

So, Carolyn here – I’m still alive and well – I made this soup yesterday and it was so good I knew I needed to post it. I was supposed to have a group of friends over to my house to watch the academy awards last night, but a few days ago my Tivo went kaput – everything about my entertainment system goes through the Tivo. Tivo is sending me a new one, free, but it won’t arrive for about another week. Therefore I have no TV to watch in my family room. So we had our academy awards potluck dinner at someone else’s home. And I made soup.

Because I had a whole chicken in the freezer, I chose to use it instead of the chicken thighs noted in the recipe – I used the same timing – so you can do that too, if you choose.

Into the Instant Pot went the chicken, some diced tomatoes (canned), a can of chopped green chiles, an onion chopped up, a shallot minced, a package of chili seasoning (or taco seasoning), a bit of extra ground cumin, canned enchilada sauce and chicken broth. I set the Instant Pot on “soup” for 20 minutes. I let it slow release for 15 minutes, then fast release. The chicken was removed to cool, then I shredded up all the meat from the chicken.

Meanwhile, I used the immersion blender on the broth part, added in the sour cream and crème fraiche, added back in the shredded chicken and let it reheat briefly. Don’t let it boil or the soup part will separate. Then I cut up the garnishes and let everyone help themselves. If you want tortilla chips, smash a few to garnish the soup (I didn’t because I didn’t think it needed it, plus I can’t have tortillas on my diet).

And how am, you want to know? I’m good. Very busy. Have a done any painting yet? Only a little. PEO has been taking up a bunch of my time lately. I’m taking a trip to San Francisco with 3 girlfriends next month which will be great fun. My grandson has been accepted at Clemson in the Fall, although he hasn’t officially told them yet (he’s interested in bio-science) – Clemson is where his sister goes to school (she’s a junior there), although she’s in Argentina studying this semester and is really struggling with the dialect. She got accepted to do a medical internship at a fertility clinic in the city where she is living. And she starts her semester classes later this week, all in Spanish (or, this Argentinian dialect, I should say). Sabrina is planning to take the MCAT in the fall to be accepted to med school. She’s the one who started out wanting to be a vet, but I think she’s certain now she wants to be an MD or a PhD research doctor. My other granddaughter is finishing her senior year at Sacramento State and hopes to go on to get a Master’s in Nursing. By the way, I’m still keeping up the “Currently Reading” section of my blog (left sidebar of the main page) in case you’re interested. Last summer I couldn’t WAIT for winter to arrive. Be careful what you wish for, right? It’s been SO darned cold here in Southern California. Coldest on record almost. But it’s been going on for weeks now. I had to dig to find more coats and wraps because it’s so cold even in the daytime.

What’s GOOD: how easy it was. I could have made it a day ahead, but as it was, I made it just before I toted it to my friend’s home. The flavor of the soup part is really, really good. Lots of Mexican flavor too. It was filling (and fairly low calorie too) and everyone thought it was really good.

What’s NOT: only the shredding of the chicken meat, and that took about 15 minutes, tops. I’m glad I still have some, because I’ll be having it for my lunch today.

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Really I’m not certain what parts of this soup make it Burmese-inspired, but what it is, is a 10 in flavor! MAKE THIS!

This recipe came from Food52, that website that is just chock-a-block full of recipes and ideas, posting about 8-10 new things every day, almost. Since sweet potato is something I can have on my diet (in small amounts) I decided to use up a sweet potato I’d purchased some weeks ago and needed to be used! I had a package of boneless chicken thighs in the freezer, so those were defrosted first, then they were marinated for a day in a mixture of turmeric, powdered ginger, ground coriander and a dash of oil.

Once I was ready to make the soup (which didn’t take all that long to do) I whizzed up in the food processor a handful of cilantro STEMS, some fresh garlic and a shallot. I was supposed to add a hot chile, but I forgot! Meanwhile, I used a big deep pot and I browned the sweet potato (peeled, cubed) in a bit of EVOO until at least 2 sides were golden-browned. It took 3 batches as you don’t want to crowd the pan (would steam rather than brown) and those were set aside. Then the chicken was added in and the pieces nicely browned for about 4-6 minutes, then that mixture I’d done in the food processor was added and allowed to cook a bit. Wow, the flavor wafting from the pan had my mouth watering. Then in went chicken stock and the sweet potatoes were added back in. Pan was covered and it simmered for about 15 minutes. The can of coconut milk was added, some fish sauce, broccoli and bok choy plus a bit of salt too. It simmered just long enough to smooth out. I didn’t eat it that day – I cooled it and refrigerated it overnight (and the coconut milk “fat” congealed on the top – but put that back into the soup – do NOT throw it out thinking it’s not healthy). I heated it up in the microwave and added some cilantro on top. I was supposed to add a quarter of a lime – I forgot to do that, too. I also didn’t make the fried shallot topping just because.

What’s GOOD: I just love-loved this soup. Everything about it. The broth is super-flavorful from the spices and the garlic and cilantro. The broth is thin – don’t expect a thick soup – it’s not. (Although you certainly could add rice or whiz up some of the sweet potato in the broth to thicken it some.)  The pieces of chicken thigh were flavorful and tender. The soup was outstanding. I have a friend who is 75% Burmese – I asked her what veggies she would add – she suggested adding the broccoli and bok choy (not in the original recipe), so I’ve added those into into the ingredient list.

What’s NOT: only that it’s best to start this a day ahead, or two, because the chicken needs to marinate overnight, and the soup is best made a day ahead, as with all soups. Otherwise, the time to make the actual soup was only about 35-45 minutes total.

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Tender chicken pieces simmered in an onion/leek-forward soup with tarragon, lemon juice and some zest. Altogether delicious.

It seems, I rarely make anything exactly as written. Are you like that too? Since I’m a big soup eater, recently I sat down at my kitchen table with cookbooks piled up on the table beside me. With this new diet I’m on, lots of soups (carb-centric) won’t do, so I scanned a couple hundred recipes and added sticky notes to about 24 of them.

Next on the agenda was to add the titles and a few ingredients into Evernote (an app on the phone) that is always with me at the grocery store, so when I think about soup, I’ll look up the soup category and will be able to read that this soup needs coconut milk, a pound of chicken, leeks, for instance. I always have onions and celery, and I have chives growing in my herb garden. And I almost always have chicken breast packs in my freezer. So I’ll know I can make this soup if I buy those extra items (leeks, coconut milk).

The original recipe for this came from a cookbook I bought about 10 years ago at Harrod’s in London. New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups: New, Old & Odd Recipes. As I recall, the company makes a bunch of fresh soups available at grocery stores in England. The soups are unusual. Not every one, but many of them are ones I’ve not heard of before. Which is a good thing. I’m kind of tired of my usual stable of soup recipes.

But, despite the fact that the recipe looked complete, I wasn’t satisfied with leaving it status quo. I had leeks in the refrigerator, so those were added in. And, I always think celery adds good flavor, so a cup of chopped up celery went in as well. The recipe called for half and half – I didn’t have any, but coconut milk was on the shelf, so that’s what I added. It wasn’t noted in the recipe, but I whizzed up the mixture with my new immersion blender. I didn’t totally puree it because I still wanted some texture. Then the little bits of chicken breast were added and simmered. Then in went the coconut milk, the lemon juice and zest and it was done. I used a combo of low sodium chicken broth and vegetable broth and used double the quantity too.

Generally, when I make soup, I make it the day ahead with the intent of waiting a day to let the flavors meld, but I wanted to taste it and I took the picture at top with some chives from my garden. I dipped my spoon into the soup before I staged the photo (hoping the soup was going to be blog-worthy), and WOW. Was it ever good. I mean REALLY GOOD. What flavor. Can’t wait to have some tomorrow.

What’s GOOD: there is tremendous flavor – the onions, leeks and celery are definitely there, but then you get the tang of lemon. Yum. The zest likely added some nice extra oomph to it too. Delicious soup. A definite one for more often rotation in my kitchen.

What’s NOT: not a thing, really. Easy soup to make – it would likely take about 45 minutes total with the chopping and mincing.

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